Say Hello On A Day Like Today

Pablo, Polly and Jo Ann are playing Uno on the exam table. Pablo is a ruthless gamer. A pirate!

Francine is napping on the desk in the exam room. And I've got Lidocaine smothered all over the blood-drawing zone of my left arm, so I can donate blood for Pablo in a few minutes. Polly got bled earlier and said it kinda hurt. So I am not takin any chances. There's a 50/50 chance I will pass out at the sight of a needle anyway, so the Lidocaine helps.

Since arriving at 2pm, we've gotten Pablo's port accessed, blood samples drawn, and now the (sometimes long) wait for Dr. Mascarenas is on. He is a busy man, and we always know that any wait we have is because Dr. M is spending time with another family-the same kinda quality, focused time he will spend with us when he gets here.

Before coming into the exam room, Pablo and I hung in the playroom. We sort of destroyed the giant wood dollhouse. OK, destroyed might be a strong word; a better way to put it is 'wreaked havoc.' When we got to the d-house, there were a dozen 'everyday people' human action figures standing. When we left, a dozen had falled. Hard. I love playing with Pablo when we engage on a mutually kooked-out activity. Especially one that makes him belly laugh the way he was today.

After that, we colored cut-out figures of a parrot, a fish and a frog, and glued them onto a giant piece of paper-a collage, with feathers, glitter and tissue paper bunting at the base. Pablo wrote his name in the upper lefthand corner, and 'Papa' next to it.

When I asked him to write my name, he pulled out his favorite laughing-exasperated character. "Papa, I don't know how to write a 'J'!"

And the beat goes on.... More checkings-in later.